Laboratory standards have been set by the European Association of Echocardiography of the European Society of Cardiology, in order to homogenize the practice of echocardiography in Europe and therefore ultimately, to protect patients. These standards have been developed for transthoracic, transesophageal and stress Echocardiography into two levels; the basic level, set to provide basic laborato...

Many changes have recently taken place in the world of laboratory accreditation. These changes include the increased use of voluntary standards in lieu of regulations, a move towards harmonization (equivalent results using voluntary standards) over standardization (using the same procedures or regulations), and an increased focus on competence, which includes the competence of laboratories to c...

In a CDIO programme, the CDIO syllabus, standards, and self-evaluation model constitute the core components of the programme’s quality assurance system. At the same time, CDIO programmes are also evaluated by national standards. A CDIO programme needs a quality assurance system which also fulfils these national requirements, and that is able to produce the evidence and documentation needed for ...

Introduction On January 24, 2014, the Public Health Accreditation Board (PHAB) released, to the public, its Standards & Measures Version 1.5 guidance document for voluntary public health department accreditation. 1 Specifically, Standard 1.2 of the guidance encompasses data collection. Two measures of Standard 1.2 stipulate the requirements of surveillance and their purposes in the context of P...

Professional standards of laboratory practice are partially derived from regulatory and accreditation standards of the federal government as well as those of non-government organizations and professional societies. These standards are monitored by on-site inspection and encompass personnel standards, patient test management requirements, quality control and assurance standards and proficiency t...

There is a growing trend towards quality assurance and accreditation of medical schools worldwide.1 Globally, countries use accreditation and standards as regulatory mechanisms to ensure the quality of medical education, and in turn healthcare. Liaison Committee on Medical Education and Committee on Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools set standards and accredit medical schools in the USA ...

INTRODUCTION Hospital accreditation can be an incentive to improve occupational health and safety (OHS) performance. OBJECTIVE This study assesses the relationship between status of accreditation among private Lebanese hospitals and compliance with OHS accreditation standards. METHODS A survey was administered to 68 private Lebanese hospitals to assess accreditation status and specific indi...

“We tend to default too quickly to top-down rather than peer review as the best way of improving standards,” the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, is reported as saying of the NHS. Accreditation is a well established form of external peer review that takes place in education. In healthcare, however, it is patchy, and some clinical services have none. Although accreditation is not a panacea for fai...

INTRODUCTION The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relative and absolute importance of individual standards used by accreditation agencies throughout the world. METHOD We developed a 150-item survey that consisted of all World Federation for Medical Education standards, supplemented with additional standards used around the world. International accreditation experts rated the standard...

This article explores the reasons why two groups of health maintenance organizations (HMOs) that serve rural areas have chosen to apply or not to apply for National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) accreditation, and their future plans regarding accreditation. It also describes the challenges faced by HMOs serving rural areas in meeting NCQA accreditation standards and collecting Health P...